Essene Teachings

To lift your eyes to heaven,
When all men’s eyes are on the ground, is not easy.
To worship at the feet of angels, when all men worship only fame and riches, is not easy.
But the most difficult of all is to think the thoughts of angels, and to do as angels do.

As the son inherits the land of his father, so have we inherited a Holy Land from our Fathers.
This land is not a field to be ploughed, but a place within us where we may build our Holy Temple; that which we have inherited from our Fathers, and their Fathers, Fathers.

The Holy Temple can be built only with the ancient Communions, those, which are spoken, those which are thought and those which are lived.
The Communions are a bridge between man and the Angels, and like a bridge, can be built only with patience, yet, even as the bridge over the river is fashioned stone by stone, as they are found by the water’s edge.

And just as the roots of the tree sink into the earth and are nourished, and the branches of the tree raise their arms to the heaven, so is man like the trunk of the tree, with his roots deep in the breasts of his Earthly Mother and his soul ascending to the bright stars of his Heavenly Father, and this is the sacred Tree of Life which stands in the Sea of Eternity.

To lift your eyes to heaven,
When all men’s eyes are on the ground, is not easy.
To worship at the feet of angels, when all men worship only fame and riches, is not easy.
But the most difficult of all is to think the thoughts of angels, and to do as angels do.

Random Thoughts: Lessons From Don Juan

(Carlos Castaneda)

A sudden gust of wind hit me that instant and made my eyes burn. I stared towards the area in question. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
“I can’t see a thing”, I said.
“You just felt it”, he replied.
“What? The wind?”.
“Not just the wind”, he said.
“It may seem to be wind to you, because wind is all you know”.

P.S. This is a follow-up on my previous Random Thoughts post marked "Columbus' Clippers". I asked previously, "how many times in our lives did we not see something simply because we did not believe that it was possible?" This time, I am asking "how many times in our lives did we not see something simply because we did not know?" Spiritually speaking, I think they are more or less the same question.

Point of Law: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

When the layman on the streets says:
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it";
The lawyer will say:
"Insofar as manifestations of functional deficiencies are agreed by any and all concerned parties to be imperceivable, and are so stipulated, it is incumbent upon said heretofore mentioned parties to exercise the deferment of otherwise pertinent maintenance procedures".

CERK Radio 40Mhz - Let No Man Tear Asunder

(By the Nightcrawler Lucien Lacroix)

Do you suppose they celebrate death days on the other side? Will the day we give up the ghost be a day of celebration in heaven, or are we just another log on the fires of hell? The only extraordinary thing about birth, it seems to me, is that we are no longer dead, which we presume to be an inferior predicament. How fiercely we struggle to avoid death. How the death of our loved ones pains us. How desperately we hold on, hold on for dear life.

CERK Radio 40Mhz - Human Factor

(By the Nightcrawler Lucien Lacriox)

Cold, Barren, Bleak ... Winter is the kindest season. The heart will not melt in winter. Chilled by the cold, we are spared the guilt, the sorrow, the messy emotion of life. Winter is solace for the lonely. It's cold touch soothes the tettered heart. The sad tales are best told in winter.

Random Thoughts - Columbus' Clippers

The premise demonstrated in this article is that we can only perceive what we believe is possible. In other words, our eyes cannot perceive what we don’t believe is possible even if it is just right there in front of us.

According to Dr. Candace Pert in “What the Bleep Do We Know?”, when Columbus first reached the Caribbean Islands, she narrated that the Native American Indians on the islands just couldn't understand from where Columbus and his crew came. When Columbus pointed at his clippers, or ships at that day and age, which were some distance off the coastline, the Natives could nothing but the endless Atlantic Ocean. This was even though these vessels were just sitting on the horizon in plain sight. This was because clippers as a concept were just beyond the Natives' comprehension and imagination. As a result, the clippers were "invisible" to the Native American Indians since their minds cannot even begin to construct the concept of seafaring vessels capable of crossing vast stretches of ocean.

The Sharman, on the other hand, noticed unusual ripples or wave forms, which were generated by the clippers docked offshore, hitting the shorelines since Columbus' arrival. He was determined to find out what caused them. And for several days, he stood by the coast staring out into the ocean, squinting his eyes to try seeing exactly what he was not seeining. Finally, the shapes of clippers materialized and he was at that instant able to see the clippers. Thereafter, as soon as he told his fellow Indians, they too could immediately begin to see the clippers simply because they believed the Sharman.

P.S. How many times in our lives did we not see something simply because we did not believe that it was possible?

The Five Essene Tenets of Compassion

(By Gregg Braden)

If you
Acknowledge that there is a single source of all that “is” or may ever “be”; that every life event, without exception, is part of “The One”;
Trust in the process of life as it is shown to you, divine timing with no accidents;
Believe that each and every experience drawn to you, without exception, is your opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of Life;
Believe that your life mirrors your quest to know yourself in all ways, knowing your extremes to find your balance; and
Believe that your life essence is eternal and that your body may enjoy the same experiences of eternalness,
Then
How can you, at the same time, judge an event, choice or actions, of yourself or another, as right or wrong, good or bad, or anything other than an expression of “The One”?

In other words,

If You
Believe that your life is eternal;
Believe that your life mirrors your quest to know yourself;
Believe in the Divine Order and Divine Timing;
Believe that each experience masterfully drawn to you is an “Opportunity” to demonstrate mastery;
Trust in the process of life as it unfolds unto you; and
Acknowledge that there is a single source of all that is “The One”,
Then
How can you, at the same time, judge an event or see it as something other than “The One”.

Therefore,

If
You question or do not believe in the essence of even one of these statements,
Then
You have just defined your next step in your path towards balance and mastery.

The Cellist of Sarajevo

It was May 27th in 1992 at 4pm in the afternoon, a mortar shell dropped in the middle of a long queue who were then waiting patiently for bread in front of one of the last functional bakeries in the market place. 22 people were killed instantaneously on the spot. Vedran Smailovic looked out of his window to find remnants of flesh, blood, bone, and rubble splattered over the area. It was at that moment where he knew he had had enough.

Smailovic, who was 37 at that time, was the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera and was also widely recognised as an extraordinarily talented cello player too. Till 1992, he was occupied with his involvements in the Sarajevo Opera, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra RTV Sarajevo, and the National Theatre of Sarajevo, as well as playing the festival circuit and working in recording studios.

Smailovic felt infuriated by what was happening around him but helpless to do anything to stop it. He was neither a politician nor a soldier, but just a musician. But did that mean he would just stand by and watch people die, while fearing for his own life all this time? In the long, dark night that followed the bread queue massacre, Smailovic thought long and deep. With the dawn of a new day, he had made up his mind that he would do something, and that something would be what he knew best, and that was to make music.

So every evening after that, for the next consecutive 22 days at exactly 4pm in the afternoon, Smailovic would walk to the middle of the street where the massacre had occurred. He would be dressed formally in his black coattails as if for a performance. There in the middle of the street, he would sit on a battered camp stool placed in the crater created by the mortar shell, with his cello in his hand, playing music. All around him, mortar shells would fall and bullets would fly. Yet he would play on regardless.

For 22 days, one day each for the people who were killed in the bread queue, Smailovic played his cello in the same spot at the ruined Sarajevo market place. He played to ruined homes, smouldering fires, as well as the terrified people hiding in basements. He played for human dignity that was the first casualty in war. But most importantly, he played for life, for peace, and for the possibility of hope that will exist even in the darkest of nights.

As his story began to filter into the press, he became a symbol for peace in Bosnia. An English composer, David Wilde, was so moved and inspired by the story that he wrote a composition for unaccompanied cello, simply called “The Cellist of Sarajevo”.

World renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma played this piece at the International Cello Festival held in Manchester, England, in 1994. When he finished playing the piece, Yo Yo Ma remained bent over his cello and his bow remained resting on the strings. No one in the hall moved, not a sound was made for a long time. Finally still in silence, Yo Yo Ma slowly straightened in his chair, looked out across the audience, and stretched out his hand toward them. All eyes followed as he beckoned someone to come forward to the stage. He was none other than Vedran Smailovic, the Cellist of Sarajevo himself. He rose from his seat and walked down the aisle as Yo Yo Ma came off the stage and headed up the aisle to meet him. With arms flung wide, they met each other in a passionate embrace. The audience then exploded into a chaotic and emotional frenzy of applause and cheering.

More recently, a young Canadian novelist, Steven Galloway, was also similarly inspired so much so that he wrote a poignant short novel in the same setting as the actual incident itself and whose title was also called “The Cellist of Sarajevo”.

So what does “The Cellist of Sarajevo” really stand for? It is the name of a bestselling book. And it is also the name of soul stirring cello composition. But most importantly, it is the name of life, of peace, and of the possibility that hope will exist even in the darkest of nights.

Random Thoughts - Paradigm Shifts

What are paradigms as applied in the layman’s context and how do we shift such paradigms?

I personally find that this concept has been best illustrated by Dr. Stephen R. Covey in his bestselling book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". In fact, one of the very first topic that he covered in this book was in relation to paradigms. Simply put, a paradigm is basically the metaphorical lens which we look through when we view the world at large. Dr. Covey maintained that that if you want to make small changes in your life, you only need to change your ways. But if you want to make quantum leaps, you would need to change your paradigms.

Dr. Covey narrated a story to illustrate his case on paradigms. He got onto a quiet train one Sunday morning, where some people were asleep while others were reading the newspaper. Yet some others were chatting softly.

All of a sudden, the door to the train opened and a man got onto the train with his kids. The kids were extremely obnoxious. They were running around screaming and yelling. Dr. Covey and a few others on the train could not help but look over at the man to see if he was going to discipline them in some way, shape or form. The man, however, just sat there staring into space with a blank look on his face, almost oblivious to the way the children were behaving.

After a few more minutes of the disturbance and the man's lack of action to do anything about it, Dr. Covey felt obliged to say a few words to the man. He asked him if he was going to do anything about the obnoxious behaviour and began pointing out exactly how erratic the children were in fact acting.

The man then looked over at the children and then looked over at Dr. Covey and said "you're right, they are acting obnoxious but after all, they did just come from the hospital where their mother passed away a few hours ago."

Shocked and then instantly embarrassed, Dr. Covey's feelings immediately changed from the need to instruct the man to the need to console him and show him empathy for his loss.

What had happened was that Dr. Covey's paradigm has changed or shifted in that instance just after the man spoke. You would have noticed that the situation had remained exactly the same. The train was still silent. The children were still disrupting everyone else and the man was still doing nothing about it. What changed was the lens with which Dr. Covey was viewing these events through.

Many times, people can look at the same thing and see different things. The reason for this is that we all see the world through different paradigms. In a more generic sense, there is no event or circumstance in this world which has any intrinsic meaning until we attribute a meaning to it. The meaning we attribute to the event or circumstance then forms a paradigm for each of us. This paradigm then become part of our belief system which we will apply to other similar events and circumstances. Since we tend to attribute different meanings to the same event or circumstance, we will then react very differently to this event or circumstance after we filter it through our own paradigms and beliefs.

As I have always maintained, there are always 3 sides to any arguments, and they are yours, mine and the hypothetical right side.

佛祖说：得不到和已失去的珍贵

从前，有一座圆音寺，每天都有许多人上香拜佛，香火很旺。在圆音寺庙前的横梁上有个蜘蛛结了张网，由于每天都受到香火和虔诚的祭拜的熏托，蛛蛛便有了佛性。经过了一千多年的修炼，蛛蛛佛性增加了不少。

忽然有一天，佛祖光临了圆音寺，看见这里香火甚旺，十分高兴。离开寺庙的时候，不轻易间地抬头，看见了横梁上的蛛蛛。佛祖停下来，问这只蜘蛛：“你我相见总算是有缘，我来问你个问题，看你修炼了这一千多年来，有什么真知灼见。怎么样？”

蜘蛛遇见佛祖很是高兴，连忙答应了。佛祖问到：“世间什么才是最珍贵的？”蜘蛛想了想，回答到：“世间最珍贵的是‘得不到’和‘已失去’。”

佛祖点了点头，离开了。

就这样又过了一千年的光景，蜘蛛依旧在圆音寺的横梁上修炼，它的佛性大增。一日，佛祖又来到寺前，对蜘蛛说道：“你可还好，一千年前的那个问题，你可有什么更深的认识吗？”

蜘蛛说：“我觉得世间最珍贵的是‘得不到’和‘已失去’。”

佛祖说：“你再好好想想，我会再来找你的。”

又过了一千年，有一天，刮起了大风，风将一滴甘露吹到了蜘蛛网上。蜘蛛望着甘露，见它晶莹透亮，很漂亮，顿生喜爱之意。蜘蛛每天看着甘露很开心，它觉得这是 三千年来最开心的几天。突然，又刮起了一阵大风，将甘露吹走了。蜘蛛一下子觉得失去了什么，感到很寂寞和难过。这时佛祖又来了，问蜘蛛：“蜘蛛这一千年， 你可好好想过这个问题：世间什么才是最珍贵的？”

蜘蛛想到了甘露，对佛祖说：“世间最珍贵的是‘得不到’和‘已失去’。”佛祖说：“好，既然你有这样的认识，我让你到人间走一朝吧。”

就这样，蜘蛛投胎到了一个官宦家庭，成了一个富家小姐，父母为她取了个名字叫蛛儿。一晃，蛛儿到了十六岁了，已经成了个婀娜多姿的少女，长的十分漂亮，楚楚动人。

这一日，新科状元郎甘鹿中士，皇帝决定在后花园为他举行庆功宴席。来了许多妙龄少女，包括蛛儿，还有皇帝的小公主长风公主。状元郎在席间表演诗词歌赋，大献才艺，在场的少女无一不被他折倒。但蛛儿一点也不紧张和吃醋，因为她知道，这是佛祖赐予她的姻缘。

过了些日子，说来很巧，蛛儿陪同母亲上香拜佛的时候，正好甘鹿也陪同母亲而来。上完香拜过佛，二位长者在一边说上了话。蛛儿和甘鹿便来到走廊上聊天，蛛儿很 开心，终于可以和喜欢的人在一起了，但是甘鹿并没有表现出对她的喜爱。蛛儿对甘鹿说：“你难道不曾记得十六年前，圆音寺的蜘蛛网上的事情了吗？”甘鹿很诧 异，说：“蛛儿姑娘，你漂亮，也很讨人喜欢，但你想象力未免丰富了一点吧。”说罢，和母亲离开了。

蛛儿回到家，心想，佛祖既然安排了这场姻缘，为何不让他记得那件事，甘鹿为何对我没有一点的感觉？

几天后，皇帝下召，命新科状元甘鹿和长风公主完婚；蛛儿和太子芝草完婚。这一消息对蛛儿如同晴空霹雳，她怎么也想不同，佛祖竟然这样对她。几日来，她不吃不 喝，穷究急思，灵魂就将出壳，生命危在旦夕。太子芝草知道了，急忙赶来，扑倒在床边，对奄奄一息的蛛儿说道：“那日，在后花园众姑娘中，我对你一见钟情， 我苦求父皇，他才答应。如果你死了，那么我也就不活了。”说着就拿起了宝剑准备自刎。

就在这时，佛祖来了，他对快要出壳的蛛儿灵魂 说：“蜘蛛，你可曾想过，甘露（甘鹿）是由谁带到你这里来的呢？是风（长风公主）带来的，最后也是风将它带走的。甘鹿是属于长风公主的，他对你不过是生命 中的一段插曲。而太子芝草是当年圆音寺门前的一棵小草，他看了你三千年，爱慕了你三千年，但你却从没有低下头看过它。蜘蛛，我再来问你，世间什么才是最珍 贵的？”

蜘蛛听了这些真相之后，好象一下子大彻大悟了，她对佛祖说：“世间最珍贵的不是‘得不到’和‘已失去’，而是现在能把握的幸福。”

刚说完，佛祖就离开了，蛛儿的灵魂也回位了，睁开眼睛，看到正要自刎的太子芝草，她马上打落宝剑，和太子深深的抱着。

P.S. 这不只是一个简单的神话故事，而是个为了使各位领悟其中一个道理而设计的典故。

Simpleology - Multimedia Course on Blogging

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Random Thoughts - The Arrow and the Song

(By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

P.S. This poem is about friendship. Very often, you would never know if your contribution to friendship has in fact been valued at the time you showed it. And it is always to your surprise that you find one day that there are actually people who have cherished that friendship which you have shown them. This is especially so in the society of today where everyone is often too busy to share many things with friends as people of the past have used to do; we can only hope that someday we can find it somewhere, that arrow in an oak, still unbroke.